1 Corinthians 4:14-17

14I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn and advise you as my beloved children.

15For even if you were to have ten thousand teachers [to guide you] in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers [who led you to Christ and assumed responsibility for you], for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the good news [of salvation].

16So I urge you, be imitators of me [just as a child imitates his father].

17For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my way of life in Christ [my conduct and my precepts for godly living], just as I teach everywhere in every church.